Fox shows faith in flailing NASCAR

The eight-year contract extension, worth $2.4 billion, that was announced between Fox and NASCAR this week was a shot in the arm for the not-nearly-as-hot-as-it-used-to-be stock car racing circuit.

Attendance, ratings and overall interest has diminished in recent years, at least in certain parts of the country.

Yet, the network's substantial investment in keeping the first 13 races of the season, beginning with the sport's Super Bowl — the Daytona 500 — on Fox through 2022 shows that at least one network believes in NASCAR's future and has backed that belief with big bucks.

This was a 36 percent increase in the rights fees paid for the current 2007-2014 contract.

"NASCAR has been in very good hands and has enjoyed tremendous success the last 12 years in large part because of our fantastic partnership with Fox and Fox Sports Media Group," said NASCAR chairman Brian France in a released statement.

"This extension with FOX Sports Media Group helps position the sport for future growth as NASCAR continues to be an anchor with one of the world's largest and most influential media companies."

Clearly, this is good news for the drivers, the racing teams, the track owners like the Mattioli and Igdalsky families who operate Pocono Raceway. … everybody.

It will be interesting to see what happens with ESPN and TNT when they go to the bargaining table.

Currently, TNT has the middle portion of the schedule in the early part of the summer and ESPN picks up the series with the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and carries it all the way through the Chase races, which end in mid-November.

The negotiations between Turner Sports and ESPN will begin next summer and NASCAR is expected to ask those entities for the same hefty rate increase that was extracted from Fox.

Despite the good feelings the new deal has inspired, there is concern because speculation exists that races in the future will be shipped to a new Fox all-sports channel that will not be as prominent on your channel grid, similar to the ones that have recently been started by both NBC and CBS.

It is expected that the Speed channel, also owned by Fox, will be rebranded into an all-sports network named Fox Sports One and that could be home for several races per year.

Now, with some hefty TV money set to come in, all NASCAR needs is either Dale Earnhardt, Jr., or even Danica Patrick to start winning races to bring back more interest to the casual fan who just doesn't have the attention span to stay with the sport from basically Valentine's Day to Thanksgiving.

THUMBS UP

I believe it was actually taped five years ago, but it was still good to see Comcast SportsNet rebroadcast the "Classic" special saluting the ballyhooed Big 5 men's basketball matchup in 1969 between Villanova and La Salle.

The panel discussion that was held between game segments featured the commentary of current Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon, who played for Villanova in that game, and current Temple coach Fran Dunphy, who played for La Salle.

It also included Al Meltzer, who broadcast the game that night. Just seeing Meltzer brought back a lot of good memories of the Big 5 and Philly sports in general.

The game and the TV production have both changed so much since 1969.

This particular game featured Big 5 stars Kenny Durrett and Howard Porter, but it also featured good, solid, fundamental basketball that is often forgotten about in the current "Shoot the 3 or dunk" era.

And the broadcast was simplistic without any special graphics. In fact, the camera panned to the scoreboard above the Penn Palestra floor at stoppages. That's the only way you knew the score and how much time was remaining.

Adding to the nostaglia, In the middle of the broadcast, Meltzer's color commentator had to read a commercial for Schaefer beer, saying, "And remember, folks, Schaefer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one."

THUMBS DOWN

Is it just me or is there a shortage of commercials on the baseball playoff broadcasts?

I turn away every time I see the witch in the broom factory for Geico and that commercial where Kerry Wood pulls Andre Dawson out of the ivy at Wrigley Field. Both commercials were amusing the first 100 times, but not the 1,000 times I've seen them since.

The Philadelphia channels treated the firing of Juan Castillo as Eagles defensive coordinator as the biggest story happening in the world on Wednesday. I am glad several outlets, such as NBC10 and Comcast SportsNet, showed interviews of Castillo.

Fans may have not liked him as a coordinator but had to be impressed by the emotion and class he demonstrated on what had to be one of the worst days of his life.

KEITH'S CAN'T MISS

The whole world of college football seems energized by the return of Notre Dame to relevancy. Even the haters have re-awakened .Can the No. 5 Fightin' Irish keep it up against BYU? NBC has the game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.